Obviously most observers have described the final round of the 2011 NBA Dunk Contest was a clinic in product placement. Yet Blake Griffin's "choice" to include a KIA sports car in his final try in the 2011 NBA Dunk Contest also reveals an interesting facet of the NBA's status in the organizational field of the market. As defined by Scott and Davis, organizational fields consist of organizations with diverse types of organizations that share both cooperative and competitive relationships. The sheer cooperation of the NBA and KIA in producing such a commodity like the Dunk Contest says less about the NBA selling out and more about the modern codependence of organizations. Perhaps this example of organizational cooperation can be extrapolated beyond the Dunk Contest to other instances of what are commonly considered simple "product placements." As suggested by KIA's inclusion of Griffin's winning dunk in their subsequent marketing campaign, the modern advertising mode of product placement is likely more of an example of organizations increasingly inhabiting a common field: consumerism.
Sources:
http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2011/02/20/blake-griffin-jumps-kia-wins-slam-dunk-contest/
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5j1sgqurmGk-9He37BcWT-6femK5A?docId=6569146
Organizations and Organization. W. Richard Scott and Gerald F. Davis. p117-120. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Press, 2003.
Monday, February 21, 2011
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